Before we get into this week’s Monday Morning Brew (listen links are further down the page), I hope you all caught our latest Mixtape, which, alongside three 1970s recordings from the new Martin Carthy archival boxset “Along The Road Forever: Live at the BBC” opened to one of the most beautiful Nick Drake covers I’ve heard in a longtime. It was Seu Jorge and Beck performing River Man:
The last Nick Drake cover to really impress me on a similar level was sixteen years ago. There was a special concert at the Barbican in London titled The Songs of Nick Drake: Way to Blue, which appears on the album of the same name.
For me, the performance of the night went to Lisa Hannigan with her rendition of Black Eyed Dog:
Seu Jorge Returns
Seu Jorge’s reworking of Nick Drake’s River Man is a fine way into his new album The Other Side, out now on Amor in Sound, and it’s also the most ambitious album of Jorge’s career. Producer Mario Caldato Jr., a devoted Drake fan, chose the song, and, as you can hear above, it takes one of Drake’s most elemental compositions into new territory. Here’s the original:
Most people probably know him for City of God and Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and for his fusion of funk, soul and samba, Jorge has spent sixteen years on this latest album. The album moves through jazz, bossa nova and classic MPB, Jorge’s deep, velvety voice is front and centre. “Above all, this album represents patience,” he says, “a great deal of patience not to give in to the urge to release it too soon, but to wait until it was truly ready.”
Caldato Jr. produced Jorge’s debut, Cru, along with the Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head and Ill Communication, and the cast he and Jorge assembled is pretty top drawer. Marisa Monte sings on the original track Quando Chego; Maria Rita, daughter of Elis Regina, joins Jorge on Vento de Maio, a song rooted in the Minas Gerais tradition of Milton Nascimento; and Belgian-Congolese singer Zap Mama features on Far From the Sea. Five of the eleven tracks are covers, three of them sung in English, widening the record beyond his typically Brazilian canon. It also draws on the ECM catalogue and the orchestral language of Claus Ogerman, arranger to Tom Jobim and João Gilberto.
Jorge calls it “the best work I’ve ever done,” and “perhaps the album that best explains who Seu Jorge is.”
The Other Side (8th May 2026, digital / 10th July 2026, vinyl) Amor in Sound
A little taster for the Brew
These Monday Morning Brew taster links are for newcomers, to give a flavour of what this week’s playlist includes. If you’re already a paid subscriber, click here for the full listen links on Substack (via Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz & YouTube). We’ve also Music Recommendations and a newly discovered Jean Ritchie concert from 1960.
The Way That It Feels by Elanor Moss
Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal |
Build It Up by Mama’s Broke
Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal |
As It Was Before Thisby Hana Stretton
Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal |
Rock Island Line by Jake Xerxes Fussell
Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal |
An Béal Bochtby Trá Pháidín
Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal |
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